First Property Out of College

[Danny Keating]

I'm currently a junior in college and have started thinking about what I want to do with real estate when I graduate. I'm majoring in Finance and am expected to make $110-$150k a year working around 60-80 hours a week after school (I know it doesn't leave a ton of time for investing but we'll make it work). My plan right now is to stay at home for a year after college and save as close to 100% of my salary as I can (parents are happy to cover a lot of my expenses). I brought up the idea with my friend that he does the same thing, and we pool our money together. We'll both chip in equally for the costs and expenses of the acquiring the property (looking to buy an apartment with a value between 500k-600k in Chicago) and live together for a few years in it. After we get older and want to move and acquire more properties, the plan is to turn that into a rental property with a property manager?

I have a few questions/concerns with this plan:

Does it make sense to buy a property with a friend? 

Are there too many risks with that and do we buy it under an LLC?

Could we buy a property > $500k a year out of college with two streams of income? Could we buy a good apartment in Chicago for that price?

Is it easy for my friend to shift full ownership to me if he loses interest (Not a huge risk but something to think about)?

Does it make sense hiring a property manager for a single apartment property?

I know there are probably plenty of other questions to think about, but I would love to hear if anyone here has done something similar or has concerns/suggestions with this plan.

Thank you!

[Travis Timmons]

No, don't partner with your friend. Neither one of you know what you are doing (none of us did in the beginning). And you likely don't need him to get into a property. I'd rather you buy a place and have roommates rent out the extra bedrooms.